


Two Robins Walk Into A Bar...

by EdgarAllenPoet



Category: Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Angst, Dick Grayson is an asshole, Gen, So is Jason, Temporary Amnesia, bar conversations, nothing like a beer between men, spoilers for Batman 54, spoilers for Nightwing 50, yknow how brothers are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 01:43:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16187489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdgarAllenPoet/pseuds/EdgarAllenPoet
Summary: Jason tracks Dick down after the accident and they have a conversation.“”Let me guess, you know me from somewhere?” Dick asked, voice all grit and attitude, and Jason hadn’t even said anything to piss him off yet.”





	Two Robins Walk Into A Bar...

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings as per usual. Who the fuck let Dick out of the manor and why is Bruce off running the globe to get revenge when he ought to be hunting down his son?
> 
> Priorities people!!

Jason took in the shady room before him.A little dark for his taste, when it came to bars. He liked being able to see his surroundings.Only a few people were currently smoking, but the smell of tobacco was buried deep in the walls of this place.A grungy welcome mat slid under his foot as he wiped rain from his boots.He shook his hair out, squinted into the room, and flashed his ID to the man at the door. 

 

“Shit, kid, happy birthday,” the guy said. 

 

Technically his ID said it was his birthday. This one at least. He had several, and at the end of the day he didn’t actually know when his birthday was anymore.The cake Alfred had sent to his apartment a few months ago was a good indicator, but he might have given Alfred the wrong date anyways, all those years ago.

 

Birthdays had never been much of a big deal when he was growing up. You learn not to expect much.

 

Birthdays were a big deal to Dick. Or at least they used to be.Maybe not anymore.After all, Dick didn’t used to hang out in places like this.Though after everything that happened, Jason didn’t blame him for wanting to start fresh.

 

Even if starting fresh meant starting farther and farther from the Batman’s wishes.From Bruce’s wishes.

 

This wasn’t easy on Bruce, but Tim had explained it to him.Bruce had already lost Dick once by holding on too tight, giving too many orders, pushing for too much control.

 

Head injury or not, he’d decided to let go. Not repeat past mistakes.

 

Jason couldn’t help but think he should have held on tighter.

 

Cause Dick was a lot of things- snarky, independent, stoic, hotheaded, cocky- the list could go on.But beyond all that, he was a ray of fucking sunshine.Dick had always been the good guy, even in his bad moments.The golden child. The role model. The favorite son, even. Probably. Definitely.

 

And here he was shaving his head, drinking, hanging out with criminals, quitting the force...

 

Dumbass.

 

This was Jason’s forte, damn it.Dick had everything else, he had to take a bite out of Jason’s identity as well. 

 

Jason was the loose canon. Jason was the fuck up. Jason made the scary choices that made Bruce want to tear his hair out.

 

Dick was the next Batman.He was the leader of the Titans and Damian’s father figure and the first robin.

 

Bruce may have had Jason’s Robin costume mounted in the bat cave, but he had Dick’s old drawings framed on the wall of his personal office.

 

Point was, Dick was supposed to be the good one, and whatever this was had got to stop.

 

A throat cleared to Jason’s left and he glanced away from his thoughts to find someone focused on him. 

 

“Let me guess, you know me from somewhere?” Dick asked, voice all gruff and attitude and Jason hadn’t even said anything to piss him off yet.

 

So the amnesia thing was real then, huh?

 

Made sense that there’d be an attitude change too. Head trauma. Mood swings. Personality changes.Jason had read about it.

 

“Maybe,” he said. “Do you know me from somewhere?” He shot back, and Dick narrowed his eyes.The shaved head was a weird look.Not bad. Didn’t make him look tougher, besides the scar cutting into his scalp. 

 

“Can’t tell,”Dick answered.“If he sent you, tell him to fuck off and leave me alone already.I’m not coming ‘home,’ whatever that means.You can tell Barbara while you’re at it.”

 

“Yeah, Babs mentioned you’d be a pain in the ass,” Jason said.Dick scoffed. 

 

Jason eyed the tap at the bar.“You drink?Or do you still have your goody two shoes values about that stuff.”

 

“I didn’t drink before this?” Dick asked, narrowing his eyes.Jason huffed our a laugh.

 

“Just when you were younger.Older Dick Grayson didn’t care too much about daddy’s old rules.”

 

Jason pushed off and headed towards the bar.He ordered two beers and put it on the card Bruce gave him for “emergencies.” Might as well put the thing to use. 

 

They grabbed a table nearby, far enough away from the juke box to hear each other and close enough to watch the dart game in the corner.Dick’s fingers twitched as he watched it.Jason wondered if his muscles remembered anything his mind didn’t.

 

“Almost like throwing a batarang,” Jason said.Bruce would throw a fit if he heard them talking about bat stuff in civilian clothes, but Dick didn’t know that now.

 

Even so, he scowled and looked away.“Don’t talk about that stuff.Whatever it is, it’s over.I burned my old uniforms.”

 

Jason let out a long, low whistle.“You’ve really gone off the deep end, huh?”

 

“You saying I’m crazy?” Dick snapped.Jason shrugged.

 

“It’s an occupational hazard,” he replied.“Being raised by a man in a spooky costume.Expressing your trauma through vigilante justice.”

 

“I don’t have any trauma.”

 

“Besides the head wound,” Jason said, ticking it off on one finger.“And the dead parents.Getting kicked out.Almost dying a dozen times.Picking up the mantel of your dead father and raising his son, only to learn he’d been lying to you and you buried an empty box.”

 

Dick slammed his glass down on the table, unsteady structure shaking between them, beer sloshing in his glass.

 

“What are you going on about!?” He barked.His face was going red, even in the low light.“If you’re here to bring me back you’re doing a piss poor job.”

 

Jason shrugged again, took a chug of his beer and drained half of it. “I’m not here to bring you back.” He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.“I’m saying I understand why you left.You’re not the only one, y’know.I’ve been dodging the old man for years.”

 

“No...” Dick said quietly, voice tight.“I don’t know.I don’t even know who you are.”

 

“I’m the one who makes the bad decisions around here,” Jason said. He took another gulp.His head swam momentarily.“So get your act together.There’s only one disgrace in this family.”

 

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

 

Jason squinted into his near empty mug and decided that was just about enough.“You’re breaking Alfred’s heart, by the way.Damian’s too probably.You’ll understand why that’s a big deal when you remember who they are.”

 

Jason stood to leave, and he got three steps away before Dick shouted after him.“Wait!” He called.“What’s your name?”

 

Jason turned back and chuckled.“Jason. I used to be your replacement.Guess you’re mine now.” And with that, he nodded to the security and walked out the door, hunching his shoulders against the rain.

 

The roads were slick, but Jason was barely buzzed.He hopped on his bike and kicked it into motion, then drove fast enough to outrun that conversation and every thought thereafter.


End file.
